Various machines and methods have been developed for retrieving individual pieces of lumber or boards stacked at one location and feeding the boards individually to a saw. Examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,379,105 and 6,923,614; each of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference. Additional lumber handling systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,730,144; 3,873,000 and 3,952,883; each of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference. A lumber processing system for making prefabricated trusses and panels is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,950,316; which is specifically incorporated herein by reference.
In some cases, boards are manually delivered to the saw by a worker. Often the worker will visually inspect a board for warpage before delivering it to the saw. If a curved board has a noticeable crown (i.e., a convexity due to the board being curved about an axis that is perpendicular to the broadest face of the board), sometimes the worker will present the board to the saw with the crown in an orientation that is favorable for use in a truss or wall assembly.